Ómós, Irish Guesthouse & Restaurant
Ómós brings Irish craft and contemporary hospitality to Abbeyleix
At chef and writer Cúán Greene’s restaurant and guesthouse in County Laois, a restored Victorian house and farmstead-inspired architecture provide a home for seasonal cooking, handmade interiors and Irish art.
Just outside Abbeyleix, Ómós brings a 40-seat restaurant and 16-room guesthouse together in a landscape of farmland, woodland and gardens. Led by Cúán Greene, the project connects a producer-led kitchen with interiors shaped by Irish craftsmanship and Scandinavian design. The ambition extends beyond a destination for dinner or an overnight stay, bringing the restaurant, accommodation and grounds into a shared experience of contemporary Irish hospitality.
Greene’s interest in making began well before his career in kitchens. Raised in an Irish-speaking household by glassblower Róisín de Buitléar and artist Terry Greene, he grew up with art and craft close at hand. His time working at Noma and Geranium in Copenhagen later deepened his appreciation of Scandinavian design and its connections with Irish heritage craft. Ómós initially took shape as a newsletter, giving him a space to explore the ideas that would inform the restaurant and guesthouse.
Design became part of the project from its earliest stages. Greene enlisted Cassandra Bradfield and Sofia Olsson of Asca Studio, both FRAMA alumni, alongside Rebecca Norberg of Relief Gallery to lead the interior architecture. Over three years, Bradfield and Norberg visited makers, communities and spaces across Ireland, developing a design language grounded in the country’s materials and traditions.
With architectural work by Ryan W. Kennihan Architects, the property brings a once-dilapidated Victorian house back into use alongside a new restaurant inspired by the Irish farmstead. Furniture, lighting and tactile surfaces were considered as integral parts of the project, giving the designers a role that reached beyond furnishing the completed buildings.
Furniture maker and woodcarver Michael “Muck” Murphy spent more than two years working on Ómós, handcrafting its dining tables and chairs in Irish oak. Asca Studio designed the tables, while Murphy designed the chairs, bringing different perspectives to a shared material.
Handcrafted wares also connect the setting with its makers. Stephen O’Connell and Alexis Bowman of Fermoyle Pottery are among the ceramicists who contributed to the collection. Alongside Greene’s seasonal, produce-led cooking, these objects give craft a practical presence in the dining experience, from the furniture guests sit on to the wares used at the table.
Ten guest rooms occupy the main house, with six more in the adjacent coachhouses. Each has its own character, while recurring details connect the spaces. Diamonds and quatrefoils, drawn from Irish folk craft and traditional symbols, appear throughout the millwork and furniture. In the Victorian house, master plasterer Liam O’Farrell restored the plasterwork while incorporating traditional Irish iconography.
Bradfield and Norberg developed bespoke interior systems and furniture collections with local artisans. Historic furniture sits alongside designs produced specifically for Ómós by Cappelen Dimyr, De la Espada, Studio Loho, Made by Choice and TONI Copenhagen. In Common With is the principal decorative lighting partner, complemented by Asca Studio’s lighting collection. Mourne Textiles adds softness to the interiors, while handwoven willow baskets by Hanna Van Aelst appear throughout the property.
Art gives the rooms and shared spaces another layer of individuality. A rotating collection across the guesthouse and restaurant includes works by Maria Simonds Gooding, Deirdre McLoughlin, Damien Flood, Stephen Lawlor, Charles Lamb and Louis le Brocquy, bringing Irish and international artistic perspectives into the project.
The landscape is an equally important part of a stay. Edward and Arthur Shackleton designed four acres of gardens, with ornamental meadows and planting that highlights native Irish plants and flowers. Vegetable gardens, fruiting trees and wildflower fields sit within the wider setting of rolling farmland and lowland woodland.
Three miles of paths and trails offer opportunities for walking and running. One follows a stream to a waterfall, another passes through a field of springtime bluebells, and a third leads into Abbeyleix. Overlooking the property’s mill pond, a Douglas fir sauna takes inspiration from ancient Irish sweathouses, known as teach allais. Outdoor copper showers provide a place to cool down and rinse off.
From carved oak furniture to restored plasterwork and native planting, Ómós carries its connection to place across the dining room, bedrooms and grounds. Greene’s vision finds expression through the people who make its objects, the producers who inform its cooking and the landscape that surrounds it.
